A Parallel Future
by madmanwithascrewdriver
Summary: Instead of traveling to Pete's World in 'Rise of the Cybermen,' the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey travel to a parallel world that is exactly the same as theirs, except that 1. it's running ahead of their universe and 2. the parallel Doctor is dead.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello people!**

**This is the first fanfic I've published, and I really want to know what you think of it. Please read and review!**

**Also, sadly, I do not own any of the awesomely splendiferous characters you are reading about.**

* * *

"And that weird munchkin lady with the big eyes! Do you remember the way she looked at you? And then she opens her mouth and fire comes out!" The Doctor was struggling to contain his laughter as he recounted the story of he and Rose's adventure with the fire-breathing munchkin lady.

"I thought I was gonna get frazzled!"

"Yeah, one minute she's standing there, and the next minute, RAWR!"

"RAWR!" Rose said at the same time, and both of them burst out laughing.

"Yeah. Where was that, then? What happened?" Mickey asked. He had been listening to the story for the past few minutes, but apparently did not find it as funny as the other two.

"Oh, it was on this, um, uh, this, uh, planet thing, asteroid. It's a long story. You had to be there." The Doctor stopped talking for a moment as he realized that Mickey was holding down a button on the Tardis. "Um, what are you doing that for?"

"'Cause you told me to."

"When was that?"

"About half an hour ago."

"Um, you can let go now."

Rose started giggling as Mickey let go of the button. With an embarrassed look on his face, He asked, "Well, how long's it been since I could've stopped?"

"Ten minutes? Twenty? 29," the Doctor admitted.

"You just forgot me!" Mickey yelled at him.

"No, no, no! I was just - I was, I was calibrating. I was just- no, I know exactly what I'm doing," he said finally.

But even as he said those words, they were proven wrong. A massive explosion rocked the Tardis, and all three companions struggled to find something to hold onto as they were thrown violently out of the time vortex.

* * *

"What's happened?" Rose called over the loud clattering of Tardis parts.

"The time vortex is gone!" The Doctor realized out loud, while staring at the console wide-eyed. "That's impossible! It's just gone!" He looked down for a few more seconds, and then yelled, "brace yourself! We're gonna crash!" before grabbing onto the nearest thing he could find.

And then the Tardis crashed. The console seemed to explode in a shower of sparks and light, throwing the three of them against the ground, and causing gas masks to come down from the ceiling.

"Everyone all right? Rose, Mickey?" The Doctor asked.

"I'm fine. I'm okay. Sorry, yeah," Mickey answered.

"She's dead," The Doctor said quietly, without waiting for Rose to answer. "The Tardis is dead."

"You can fix it," Rose almost pleaded.

But the Doctor dashed her hopes when he said, "there's nothing to fix. She's perished. The last Tardis in the universe, extinct." He walked slowly around the room, staring at the center and stroking it, as if he couldn't quite believe that she was dead.

"We can get help, yeah?" Rose sounded desperate by this point.

"Where from?"

"Well, we've landed. We've got to be somewhere."

"We fell out of the vortex. Through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no-place." He was almost talking to himself by this point. "The silent realm. The lost dimension…"

"Otherwise known as London," Mickey laughed, staring out the open door. "London, England, Earth." He walked outside. "Hold on," he strode over to a bin and took a newspaper. "May 7th, 2007. Not even a year into the future."

"No. Can't be. Not possible," The Doctor shook his head and took the newspaper from him. "You're right. It says London, 2007. But it can't be. No. No way. Do you even know how improbable that is? It's impossible. 100 trillion years until the end of the universe, billions of planets and stars and asteroids, not to mention the individual cities in each one. And the space outside of the universe too. And we just happen to land in the exact time and place you're from? No. Can't happen. The probability of that, it's just impossible."

"You keep saying that, and yet here we are. London, 2007." Mickey showed him the newspaper again.

"Is it possible that the Tardis sensed that she was dying and brought us back here?" Rose asked him.

"We fell out of the time vortex, Rose. We get to London by traveling through the time vortex. I don't think it's possible to get here without going through the time vortex."

"Well obviously we did," Mickey pointed out.

"I know," the Doctor replied, "and that's what worries me. There's something else going on here. Something I'm not seeing. Somehow, I don't think we are where we think we are."

"Well anyway, I'll let you figure it out. I'm going to go find my mum. If it's really 2007, we've been gone for almost a year. I'd better go see if she's okay." Rose ran down the street in the direction of her apartment, and soon disappeared from sight. The Doctor watched her go, and then went back inside the Tardis. Mickey followed him.

* * *

** Okay, not the best first chapter ever. Definitely not the most original. But still, it's the exposition. Big word for introduction. Beginning. Making sure you know who everyone is, and how exactly they get from one universe to the other. (I know they haven't figured out they're in another universe yet, but you should have. It was in my summary.) Anyway, if you didn't like it, try the next one anyway. If you don't like that one, review, and then close the page and never look back.**

** Very few stories have a good first chapter. Sometimes it can take fifty pages or so for someone to get into a story. And people who give up after the first chapter often miss out on some great novels, just because they aren't willing to wait and see if it gets better.**

** I'm not calling this story a great novel (it's not a novel, and I'm too modest to call it great) but if the summary intrigued you enough that you tried the first chapter, don't give up here. Just take a few minutes, and TRY IT. What you find might surprise you.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello people!**

**Thanks for sticking around for Chapter 2 =)**

**Reviews are appreciated**

**I don't own Doctor Who. I wish I did.**

* * *

Rose ran up the stairs to Jackie's apartment, and knocked on the door. She was mentally reviewing her explanation for not having visited in a year, when a complete stranger opened the door. "Um, hello, I'm looking for Jackie Tyler?" she asked hesitantly. "This is her apartment, right?"

"Where've you been? Jackie hasn't lived here in months," the woman at the door told her.

Rose was surprised. Her mother had been comfortable living there. Why would she leave? "Well, do you know where she is?"

The woman's smile became an expression of sorrow as she heard that question. "You don't know?" Rose shook her head. "Jackie died. Last summer, at the battle of Canary Wharf."

"She's dead?" Rose almost whispered. She couldn't believe it. How could her mother be dead?

"You really didn't know? Where were you last summer?"

"Traveling."

"So you missed the battle and everything. Oh, sweetie. Here, come on in and I'll make you a cup of tea and tell you all about it. What's your name?"

"Rose," she was able to whisper through her tears.

"Funny, that was Jackie's daughter's name. Come on inside, Rose, sit down. There you go. I'll be right back."

She ushered Rose inside the living room, and then went off to the kitchen to make tea, leaving Rose alone with her thoughts.

But the only thing she thought was, 'how can my mum be dead?'

"Drink this, dear. You'll feel better. Now, about what happened to poor Jackie, well, you know about the ghosts and everything, right?" Rose shook her head. "Really?" Rose nodded. "But, they were everywhere! How could you have missed them?" Rose shrugged.

"Okay. I'll just have to tell you then. So, one day, everything was completely normal, right? When suddenly, all of these ghosts came out of nowhere! Everywhere in the world. No one knew what they were. And then they just disappeared, as quickly as they came. But for months afterwards, they kept on coming back. Every day, at certain times, these ghosts would appear. And after a while, we started thinking they were real ghosts. You know, our loved ones back from the dead. But then on July 1 of last year, they appeared like normal, and then turned into these big metal cybermen.

"The cybermen were killing people left and right, and talking about upgrading and becoming like them and stuff like that. And we were all terrified, of course. I mean, just imagine, millions of metal men who could shoot lasers and everything! And then, it just got worse. These other weird alien things started appearing out of nowhere. They were kind of cone-shaped, brownish, and they shot death rays out of what looked like a whisk. We all thought we were going to die, of course, but then they all started to fly up and into the top of Canary Wharf, you know, the tower. And then they were all gone. So many people were dead or missing, but the aliens were all gone.

"Jackie disappeared that day. You know, some people say she was at Canary Wharf during the battle. There are eyewitness accounts of her, her daughter, and a strange man in the middle of the battle, saving the world. Some people say they saw her husband too, but that's impossible. He died a long time ago. Isn't it just amazing, though, about Jackie? I mean, I knew her! I knew the woman who saved the world!"

"How did you know her?" Rose asked. "And, how did she save the world?"

"I met her at the grocery store once. We struck up a conversation."

Rose mentally rolled her eyes. "But how did she save the world?"

"I don't know. Everyone who was there died or disappeared. Her, the people who worked there, the man with her, I suppose you could try to find her daughter and ask her, but no one's seen her in months-"

"Wait," Rose insisted. "People have seen her daughter since then?"

"Oh yes! There are more rumors surrounding her than her mother! People seem to see her every time the world is in danger! Apparently, she was in the Royal Hope Hospital when it disappeared, and I've heard that she was the one who drained the Thames last Christmas, and helped stop that web ship."

"Christmas…"

"Yeah, Christmas."

"When was the last time she was seen?" An idea was forming in Rose's mind, and for the first time she saw a glimmer of hope. She stopped crying and dried her face, wishing desperately that her idea was correct

"Oh, that was way back in March, when the hospital disappeared.

"March…"

The woman had begun to look at her strangely. "Yeah, March, that's what I said."

"I've got to go." Rose put down her mug and ran out the door.

* * *

Rose ran into the Doctor a block away from the Tardis. "Rose, we've got power!" The Doctor yelled. At the same time, Rose said, "I think I know where we are!"

"You first. You know where we are?" The Doctor asked.

"I think. I was talking to this woman, she loved listening to gossip and spreading rumors, so I'm not sure how much was true, but she said that my mum had died last summer during this battle with Cybermen and Daleks."

"What?"

"It would have been after we left. And I thought that we had just gone into the future and missed it. But then she started talking about when my mum disappeared. And apparently, she was in the center of the battle with her daughter and a strange man."

"But that sounds like-"

"I know. So I was thinking, in books and stuff, there are other universes. Parallel universes. And people can travel between them, and meet themselves. So if we fell out of the time vortex…"

"Rose, you are brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! A parallel universe, of course! I've been blind!" He paused. "You read books like that?"

"Mickey used to leave them lying around my house. But you said something about power?"

"Right! We found a live power cell! It just needs time to charge up. We can leave in about 24 hours."

"That's great!" When Rose realized that they were in another universe, she had expected to have to spend the rest of her life there. But now, it was as if her future had been returned to her. She would not have to live in this world forever. She could go back to her life in the Tardis. Now, with a huge smile on her face, she ran back to the Tardis.

After telling Mickey everything she had told the Doctor about parallel worlds and such, Rose ran off again. The Doctor ran after her, and asked where she was going.

She replied, "I have 24 hours in a parallel universe. Who knows?"

"I don't suppose you'll listen if I say stay out of trouble?"

"Who knows?" she repeated.

"Oh, blimey. Every time. Why can't I meet one person, just one, who will actually listen?" The Doctor said under his breath before going after Rose.

As usual, he completely forgot about Mickey.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello people!

Again, thanks for reading. And thanks to Liz for reviewing =)

Reviews would be nice...

I have not been asked to take over the show yet. Until then, I don't own anything here.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose walked down the busy streets of London, looking around at the familiar sights. "It's weird," Rose pointed out, "'cause you know it's not the same place you grew up in, but it looks exactly the same. I mean, I worked in that shop for a year in high school. Broke up with my first boyfriend in that restaurant over there. But it wasn't that shop, or that restaurant. It was a whole universe away. And still, when I look at the shop, I feel like it did happen there. I have to keep reminding myself I don't belong here."

The Doctor nodded, and she continued. "It's like when I first found out my mum had disappeared. I was crying, at first 'cause I thought we were in our own universe. But even now, when I know she's not really my mother, I still feel like my mum's dead. And in a way, she is. She had a daughter named Rose. She had a husband who died years ago. She lived in the same place, probably did the same things day after day as my mum did. It's like she's dead, but I can still see her again."

"It's not exactly the same, you know."

"What?"

He looked at her. "You were talking about how everything looks the same. But it's not. Parallel universes are always different, even if it's just in the smallest way. Maybe Rose Tyler did break up with her boyfriend in that restaurant, and maybe this Jackie did live her life the same way as your mum. But something changed. You can't have two universes that are exactly the same.

"Although," he continued after a pause, "I suppose that whatever is different here might not affect you. Maybe this universe was created by a man in Sweden. Or in Mexico. Or on Raxacoricofallapatorius. Or, for that matter, in all three places. And more. There's really no limit to how many things can be different in a parallel universe."

"This universe is our future. Could that be enough?"

"Not if history takes the same course. But you see though, that's the problem. This is our future. If we wanted, we could find ourselves, and figure out what's in store for us. But whatever created this universe, whatever difference is hidden here, maybe the choice does affect us, but the point where the universes diverged might not have happened yet for us. And if we somehow find out what it was and what the outcome was, it could change our futures. And not necessarily for the better."

"Someone's nervous today," Rose commented.

"Someone has to be. Parallel worlds are like gingerbread houses. So full of temptations. Especially worlds like this, where you can figure out your future."

"Well, consider me warned. I won't interfere if you don't drag me kicking and screaming back to the Tardis. Now, since we have another 23 hours here, how about we go do something fun?"

"Like what?" The Doctor looked slightly worried.

"Well, it looks to me like there's a party going on in there." She pointed to a large building where a bunch of people in fancy dress were streaming through the door.

"What, a business party?"

"Bet they'll have food." Rose flashed him a winning smile, and he submitted.

"If it's that or chips, I'll take the fancy business party. Just to eat, though. It's in a laboratory. Laboratory parties usually include scientists. And if I have to explain to one more scientist that their life's research is wrong…"

Rose grinned again, and began walking up the steps to the party at Lazarus Laboratories.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello people!**

**REVIEW!**

**WARNING: this chapter contains spoilers**

**There are people who can claim to own Doctor Who. I am not one of them.**

* * *

The Doctor had quickly decided that the boring-looking business party was not bad at all, as it took him less than a minute to discover the plates of nibbles being carried around. But the nibbles weren't enough to make him want to stay longer than expected; the decision to do so was only made after he discovered the large, strange-looking machine in the middle of the room.

"That looks like a sonic microfield manipulator!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"What does that even mean, Doctor? I don't speak science. What does the machine do?" Rose was curious.

"Well, I think you're about to find out," the Doctor said as an old man walked up to the machine and clinked his glass for quiet.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began. "I am Professor Richard Lazarus. And tonight, I'm going to perform a miracle!" He made a short speech about changing the world, and then stepped inside of the machine, while the Doctor, Rose, and everyone else there watched, wondering what was about to happen.

The woman standing at the controls hit a button, and the machine started to glow with an eerie bluish light. The outside started to spin around, gaining speed with every passing moment. Everyone watching was squinting their eyes against the light, and waiting expectantly for it to stop.

But it didn't stop. Instead, the machine spun even faster, and seemed to glow even brighter. An alarm began to blare, and only the sound of crackling electricity could be heard over the loud screeching.

"It's overloading!" The Doctor realized, and he turned to watch the woman at the controls frantically hitting buttons trying to stop it. But, after seeing that their efforts were fruitless, he rushed over to help.

"Somebody stop him! Get him away from those controls!" An old woman, Lazarus's partner, yelled from the side as the Doctor began pressing buttons and using his sonic screwdriver to try to stop the machine.

"If this thing goes up, it'll take the whole building with it! Is that what you want?" he yelled, and continued working.

The machine was spinning faster than ever now, and was emitting a high-pitched whining noise. To the onlookers, it looked like it was about to explode.

The Doctor pulled a cable loose, and the machine slowed to a stop. Rose rushed up and pulled the door open, letting out a thick cloud of smoke. And then Professor Lazarus stepped out.

Everybody watched in amazement as a young man exited the box. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, after a time, "I am Richard Lazarus. I am 76 years old. And I am reborn!" Applause rocked the room as everyone realized that Lazarus had successfully deaged himself.

The only people not clapping with excitement were Rose and the Doctor. Instead, they were wearing looks that said, 'that could not possibly have happened. What did that man just do to himself?'

"That's impossible. It's gotta be a trick," Rose said immediately.

"No, I wish it were. But it's real." The Doctor replied in a solemn tone.

"How?" Rose asked him.

"Hypersonic sound waves mixing up his DNA, forcing it to rejuvenate. Simple theory, really. But he can't possibly have allowed for all of the variables. Something must have gone wrong in there."

"He mixed up his own DNA?"

"I know," he sighed. "Mixing up DNA makes it incredibly unstable. It can continue changing, mutating, for who knows how long afterward."

"Mutating into what, though?"

"I don't know. No way to find out now. I'd need to see his DNA to even guess. There are laboratories here, but there's no way to get a sample…" he trailed off.

"Give me a few minutes. I think I know a way to get one. Just go find a laboratory, turn everything on, see if you can find any new information about the machine that might help us, and I'll meet you there in five. Second floor, so I know where to find you," Rose smiled and ran off towards Lazarus as the Doctor went to find his lab.

* * *

"Professor, what you did before was absolutely amazing!" she gushed. "I can't believe it actually worked! I mean, 76 years old, you look incredible!"

"Ah, there you are dear," Lazarus said as he heard her voice and turned to face her. "I'd wondered where you ran off to."

"Excuse me?"

"When you left before. Where did you go? I mean, we had just gotten acquainted, you didn't have to leave so quickly."

"Oh, I'm sorry, you must have mistaken me for someone else," she replied, confused.

"No, I wouldn't forget your pretty face."

Rose was getting more confused by the moment. She definitely would have remembered talking to Lazarus before, but she hadn't spoken a word to him. "I really don't know what you're talking about," she smiled, "But if I was talking to you before, where did we leave off?"

Lazarus took her hand in his, and kissed it. "And then you ran off," he told her.

That's weird, Rose thought. That's exactly what I was planning on doing.

And then it hit her. She realized why Lazarus thought he had talked to her before. And for the second time, he was forced to watch as the pretty girl he had kissed ran away.

* * *

The Doctor walked through the stairwell door on the second floor, and found himself in a hallway. He strode to the first door he saw, and was pleased to see that it was in fact a laboratory. He ran in, and then stopped short as he turned a corner and saw a familiar-looking blond woman standing at the computers. "Rose?" he asked, bewildered. "How did you get here before me? Did you get your DNA sample?"

Rose turned around, saw the Doctor, and stared at him, an incredulous expression on her face.

"Well? Come on, we need to be quick, before he does something that could hurt someone."

"Doctor?" she asked tentatively.

"Yeah, it's me. Hello! Now, we really need to hurry. Do you have the sample or not?"

But instead of answering, she ran up to him, and hugged him, a delighted smile lighting up her face.

"What's that for? Rose, listen, I -" he stopped, as he heard the sound of running footsteps behind him, and turned his head to look.

* * *

Rose was mentally kicking herself for not realizing this before, as she sprinted up the staircase to the second floor. Why hadn't she figured it out earlier? 'People seem to see her every time the world is in danger,' the woman had said. Well, the world was certainly in danger now. She ran harder, knowing how important it was for her to find the Doctor first. After all, the woman said that the 'strange man' seen with Rose and Jackie had disappeared…


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello people!**

**I will love you forever if you review!**

**The people who own Doctor Who make money off of it. So since I am writing this story without any hope of a monetary reward, I guess I don't own Doctor Who =(**

* * *

The Doctor, still wrapped in Rose's unexplained hug, heard someone running in the hall, and then saw the door slam open. And in ran… Rose?

"Doctor, I -" Rose began, but stopped once she saw who else was in the room with them.

The Doctor's eyes widened as he took in the strange sight. But, being extremely gifted when it came to figuring things out, he quickly realized what was happening.

"Of course we have to meet up with the parallel Rose," he muttered under his breath. "Rose," he spoke louder, looking at the Rose who had been hugging him a second ago, "I don't think I am who you think I am. And I think it would be a very good idea if I were to, um, leave the room right now."

He began to slowly walk out of the lab, managing to ignore the heartbroken look on Rose's face, when they heard a loud crash come from above them. And the Doctor ran through the open door, not caring who followed him, but completely determined to find the source of the sound.

As expected, both Roses were right on his heels.

* * *

The noise had come from one of the top floors, the Doctor thought, so he ran directly to the stairs. Rose (the Doctor's Rose) had begun to follow him, but her doppelganger put her hand on her shoulder, and pointed to the lift.

Rose and Rose had gotten off the lift on the top floor, after hearing three more loud crashes and deducing that they had come from a high-up story. But after hearing another crash from above them, they looked at each other and said simultaneously, "the roof!"

* * *

The Doctor, meanwhile, was not quite at the top when he saw another person on the staircase. She was a young woman, dark-skinned, and wearing a fancy dress for the formal party. She was trying to run, but was having trouble, due to the high heels she had on.

"Ah! Hello!" the Doctor said cheerfully when he saw her.

"Hello!" replied the woman, a nervous tremor in her voice. "Listen, sir, you really shouldn't go up this way. We've encountered a problem -"

"No time for blabber, has Lazarus turned into a monster?" he interrupted, obviously not wanting to waste any time.

The woman hesitated for a moment, then nodded. The Doctor started to rush up the stairs again, but she stopped him by yelling, "no, you can't go up there. He'll kill you! We've got to go downstairs, get everyone out!"

"So go do it," he instructed. "What was your name again?" He asked, and then waited a second for her to answer.

"Tish. Tish Jones."

"Get everyone out, Tish. Hurry!" and he disappeared up the staircase.

By the time he reached the door leading to the roof, the monster had been silent for a long time. Very cautiously, very hesitantly, the Doctor put his hand on the doorknob and turned it. Slowly, he pushed it open and peeked out, expecting to see Lazarus, or some unidentifiable monster that used to be him. What he was not expecting to see, however, was an old man lying still on the ground, and two Roses standing above him, quietly talking. And yet the unexpected happens every day, so that is indeed what he saw.

"Rose! What did you do to him?" The Doctor was frantic as he ran over to Lazarus, whose face was once again that of an old man. After taking his pulse, he looked up at the Roses. "He's dead," he said quietly. "What happened?"

"He turned into a monster," said the parallel Rose. "We came up here, opened the door, and saw this, this thing. I think he was trying to get in, but someone had closed the door on him. He was about to kill us, but I -" she cut off.

"You what?" The Doctor's voice was soft, and it sounded like he didn't want to hear what she was about to say.

"I shot him." And the parallel Rose pulled a sonic blaster from her pocket.

"You what!?" the Doctor yelled in horror. "You shot him?"

"I had to. He was about to kill us!"

"You could have at least given him a chance!"

"She did," Rose cut in. The Doctor's Rose, who had remained silent until now. And now, two heads turned to look at her. "She did give him a chance. He laughed at her, said she couldn't help. He was seconds away from killing me."

"I told you, Doctor. I had to. There was no choice, I'm sorry," apologized the parallel Rose.

"What happened to you, Rose?" He asked the parallel version. "As far as I know, you two are the same. But my Rose would never carry around a sonic blaster, let alone use it. So something is different. Something happened between your time and ours. I'm not going to ask you what it was, because knowing your own future is dangerous. But tell me this. Will my Rose still become this, even after meeting you?"

"I did more than just meet her, Doctor," his Rose said before the other Rose could answer. "We were talking before. You took a long time to get up here, you know. I told her about us, and, then I asked her what happened. She told me."

"Rose, I told you not to!"

"She told me that a few months ago, there was a battle. Just like that woman told me this morning. Cybermen and Daleks had come through the void into this universe. But this universe had its own Doctor, and he had an idea that could fix everything."

"Stop it."

"'Cause a couple months before that, Rose was brought into another universe. Rose, Mickey, and the Doctor. The one where the cybermen came from. And in that universe, her dad was still alive."

"Rose -"

"All of the aliens had come through from that universe, so they were soaked in void stuff, and that would draw them into the void like a magnet if it were opened. But the problem was, Rose and the Doctor had void stuff on them too."

"Rose, listen -"

"He sent Rose and Jackie to the other universe using a teleport to live with Pete, who didn't have a daughter, and whose wife had died. But Rose came back, saying that she didn't want to go, and had chosen to stay with the Doctor."

"Please listen to me!"

"They activated the void using these levers, and everything was getting sucked in, but they were holding on to something, so they wouldn't be pulled in. But then, the lever on the Doctor's side turned itself off. He had to hold onto the lever to keep the suction going, but he couldn't. He - he was pulled into the void."

"Rose -"

Rose was crying by this point Even though none of this had happened to her, it still felt like it had. "This universe's Doctor is dead. Rose was left with nothing. No family, no Doctor. Just the Tardis and the universe.

She came out of a war, Doctor," Rose almost yelled. "Everyone she loved was dead, or as good as. She was alone. Does that remind you of anyone?"

The Doctor had no response.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hola personas!**

**Muchos gracias para leyendo, y para (however you say "reviewing" in Spanish)**

**'Doctor Who' no es mio :(**

* * *

Silence had fallen on the roof of the Lazarus Laboratories building.

Two identical women, one Time Lord, and the body of an old man were the only things up there. The three sentient beings sat quietly, able to but not willing to speak. Their minds were bursting with thoughts and questions and possibilities, and yet not a word was uttered. All three simply stared into space, barely aware of what was around them.

The Doctor's gaze went down. He looked at the mass of people below, and vaguely realized that Tish had followed his instructions to get everyone out. But that thought was only in the back of his mind; his conscious thoughts revolved more around his own life than those of the people below. His mind wandered, as it always did, but it kept coming back to one central idea: _Now that Rose knows that I'm destined to die at Canary Wharf, when that time rolls around, how do I stop her from preventing it?_

Rose, the Doctor's Rose, the one readers would call the original Rose, or the canon Rose, was alternating between staring at the Doctor and at her doppelganger. As she looked at her Time Lord, her mind was working at its maximum to figure out ways to prevent his death. Her logical side said that even if she formulated a plan to save his life, he wouldn't go along with it. But her emotional side told her without a doubt that she would not fail him, not give up on him, and not let him go. As she stared at her duplicate, though, she only felt sorry, and one thought ran through her head:_ No one should have to lose their Doctor._

The parallel Rose concentrated her gaze on the tall man in pinstripes. She couldn't put words to what she was feeling; if she had to explain, she would call it a mixture of mind-numbing sadness, extreme happiness, and utter confusion. She felt like crying and laughing at the same time, but for the same reasons. The Doctor was back, but he wasn't hers. And she knew he would have to leave eventually, to preserve the natural balance of the universe or whatever. As soon as the Tardis was recharged, he would go back to his own universe, and travel on, leaving Rose here alone. But she was still glad for the chance to see him again, even if he wasn't her original Doctor.

Being Rose, though, she wasn't about to give up so easily. If given the chance, she would take any Doctor she was given, whether it be a parallel one, another regeneration, or any combination of the two. She would love him whoever he was. And so the only thing Rose was thinking was, _How can I get him to take me with him when he leaves?_

But no one voiced their thoughts.

* * *

"Where'd you get a sonic blaster from?"

The Doctor's spoke in a rather soft voice, but the question still destroyed the silence of the previous moments. His tone sounded uncaring, though he clearly had much more important questions to ask.

"Jack left in on the Tardis after the incident in 1941. He never took it back." Parallel Rose's reply was as nonchalant as the question, although, as with the Doctor, it was clear that she was dying to change the conversational topic to one more meaningful than the acquisition of sonic weaponry.

"How is the Tardis? Have you seen her since -" he stopped, not wanting to elicit a reaction from either Rose.

"Um, I've been traveling with her since. And she's fine, yeah, she's good."

"You travel? In the Tardis? Really? How'd you learn to fly her?" The Doctor's tone had lost all elements of apathy as he rattled off question after question concerning Rose's travels and her knowledge of Tardises. He even turned to look at her; something he had been deliberately avoiding up until this point.

"You left the instruction manual," Rose explained.

The Doctor looked slightly crestfallen. The answer had seemed rather anticlimactic; he had been expecting something a little more strange. His feelings soon changed from let-down to confused, however, when he realized an important fact. "That's impossible! I threw the instruction manual into a supernova!" He exclaimed. "There's no coming back from that. That manual was gone."

"Well maybe he didn't," the original Rose jumped in. Both of the others turned to face her.

The Doctor reluctantly nodded. He had momentarily forgotten that Rose's Tardis had belonged to another man, not him.

Parallel Rose had also forgotten for a minute. But the other Rose coming into the conversation reminded her once again that this wasn't her Doctor.

Both of them adopted a saddened expression. Rose (original Rose) looked kind of apologetic at this. "Sorry, you can go back to your private conversation if you want," she said.

"No, no, it's not you," the Doctor protested. But Parallel Rose made no such claim.

Whether it was Rose's intervention or a lack of things to say, the conversation stopped there, and the three sat in silence once more.

* * *

Minutes passed, again in silence, as each of them tried to find a way to bring up what they wanted to say. Even for the talkative Doctor this was difficult. He was indeed the one to spark a new conversation, but the only thing he could say was, "We should let the police know about Lazarus. Come on, let's go down."

The Roses followed him through the door, down the stairs, and through the empty building. And with each echoing footstep, they were reminded of all the things they had left unsaid.


End file.
